2:38 PM - 24.09.04
Trouble
"Another Day in Paradise" was what one of the scientists was singing as I walked through the hall with my first coffee today. How did he know I was planning to listen to Phil? I was curious about how someone who was originally a drummer turned lead singer would handle precussion to support vocals. The zils thing you see. Then switched over to Marvin Gaye. Significantly different approaches but instructive. Rest of the days music was mostly techno or dance. I needed both the energy they dredged up from somewhere in my psyche and the focus they provided for the work.
The yo yo theme was still very evident today at work. Came in expecting to work on the divestment shipments for at least half the day. Found the brother - who usu�lly arrives an hour or more later than me - already at work and finished a lot of things left undone the night before. He had come in to work at 3:30 in the am. "Whatever for" - couldn`t sleep because of the emergent problem that had cropped up earlier in the week. Did the Mom lecture again, even though I knew better. Someone really stressed doesn`t need another negative round of feedback. Do they? He left around 9 am for a meeting about the problem and was back in about an hour and a half. His sister seemed to begrudge that and wasn`t willing to give him any concessions. Compare that to the response I got when my plumbing crisis occurred. Damaged things are a crisis but humans aren`t. One pattern I`ve noticed with the brother is that the more stressed he is the flirtier he becomes. It was really evident yesterday. I wouldn`t mind if he were single and we weren`t at work, but again the staff here - at least some - are always looking for anything that they can twist to reflect negatively on you.
Today was different in that it was evident he was still very stressed but he was also very subdued. Wonder if he got another one of those "you`re not meeting your targets" lectures from his sister. Yesterday (I think) she asked the outsourced young woman who was filing if she would stay late to help and I`ve been really pressed to stop the scannning that is all my contract provides for task wise the past week, to help out. I`m guessing that my supervisor might have read the riot act to her yesterday not only about my meds being tampered with, but also about my work assignments. She avoided me as much as possible today and obviously had difficulty restraining her temper when she was around me. I suspect she downloaded that on to her brother too - hence the other reason for the early morning worktime.
When I arrived, I commented that I would be by shortly to help him with the rest of the packing as had been agreed at the end of yesterday. He just said, no, that he`d do it himself. I could see how much was still left and asked a couple of times more if that was what he really wanted, but he was firm about it. Went and scanned for most of the rest of the day.
The exception was just before lunch. Apparently someone had called the couriers to come and pick up the shipment he was supposed to have had ready - probably originally factoring in my labour too - but of course he hadn`t been able to complete everything necessary. I just heard a very soft call asking if there was any chance I could come help finish it off. Took us about 20 minutes with the couriers standing and chatting with us about all the changes and plans the takeover meant for the next phase of the company`s development. The brother became quite alarmed at one point when the mover started talking about when we would be relocated to the other tower while the records center was renovated. For whatever reason, the timing of that appears to be a deep dark secret. Whatever.
Just after the couriers left I was putting away some files when I came across a file that needed attention. I was standing and talking with the brother about it, when the liaison rushed up and demanded to know what we were discussing. I think she feels that my boss has undermined her authority by demanding she honour the noncontract for me and she was trying to re-establish that in whatever little ways she could. Fine. Power is highly over-rated and when one begins to feel that one`s whole self image is damaged when someone else make a decision it is time to let go and move on.
Two other very strange file issues tody too. I came across a duplicate file that had a note from one of the scientists directing a records center staffer who is no longer there to create it even though the original file was in existence. It couldn`t be found when he wanted it, so he directed her to create the new one immediately. Even though we`ve been working with those records closely every day for the past couple of months, that original file only surfaced today. The brother lauged when I showed him and asked me to call one of the other scientists looking for it to alert him to the fact. Inside joke obviously. I just did as I was asked.
The second oddity came when I was scanning. A few weeks back, the co-ordinator sashayed into the boardroom when the brother wasn`t around and handed me a very old copy of a certain class of document for one particular property. She mentioned one of the scientist`s names and said he had directed her to throw all the documents for that property away because it was no longer in existence. She told me to take the document she gave me home as a souvenir. Yeah right - why not just go shoot myself too. One never, ever removes any document from a client. Even when they are discarded they are supposed to be shredded. I put it aside and dealt with more pressing things meaning to research it later. It showed up in the stack of scanning I was working on today. I checked in one of the industry databases to see its status. Active and very valuable. Showed the report to the brother and explained the instructions I had been given by the co-ordinator - except for the part about taking that one piece home. I think he might have known anyway, because he asked me to retrieve the balance of the file. It wasn`t on the shelves, no out card either. Wonder if it was another one of the properties sold out the backdoor without the company`s knowledge or approval. Hmmmmmm.
Left at my regular time, but felt badly about it. The brother was still there and so was the co-ordinator. I think they had been told that they couldn`t leave until certain targets had been completed. I don`t have any sympathy for her because she was still refusing to dowhat was asked of her this morning. Very verbal about it too. At one point the brother must have asked her to research a property issue and she was loudly commenting about that - to no one in particular. When he left for his appointment, she came and asked me for the correct response. I explained why I made the comments I did and showed her where to find the information she needed. When the brother returned he asked her for the results and she told him that what her original decison had been even though she knew differently. That devalues that property by a considerable amount. Hmmmmm. I had indicated to the brother that he just had to ask for me to help at various times during the day because I could see he was struggling, but obviously he has been told not to have me do that work. I wonder why he is being punished for the errors made by the liaison and the co-ordinator.
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